the nme dubstep article

[nomadologist]

As someone located in the US, it is always noteworthy to see how much attention and debate can be generated by the NME. Nomadologist mentioned a while ago on dissensus that the US simply does not have a similar comparand. Rolling Stone or Spin would, I guess, be the closest thing, yet they have seemed irrelevant for years - in Rolling Stone's case, I would say for decades. I for one can't remember the last time that I even looked at the cover of Rolling Stone, much less considered what was inside. I certainly couldn't tell you one thing about its preferences, writers, coverage of trends, or relevance for contemporary music audiences. This must have something to do with the size of the two countries and the difference in population? Or is there another explanation? I mean, with 300 million people in the states, someone buys these magazines, but that doesn't mean that they feel influential at all. Sorry, this was aside to the topic at hand I realize . . .

Tate, I think the key factor is the difference in our population sizes, as that is in direct proportion to the difference in the size of the market here. We just have so many more people (=listeners/consumers) that it seems there are exponentially more niche markets, at very least we can say there are many many more albums released. We're flooded with so much more information that only very significant trends even qualify as "trends."

It's funny as an American to look at, say, the dubstep or grime threads here and see how much of an influence such a new genre can have in the U.K. while it's barely been given an inch of copy in the U.S. I think it's safe to say basically no one here but the most informed and "hippest" music fans have ever heard of dubstep (and probably no one else ever will.) What's "commercially viable" here is held to much higher sales requirements than anything in Europe is: I remember what struck me first when I was living in Germany is how long a song would stay in the top 10 on the radio. Some stayed for literally 6 months. In the U.S. you fight to have a song stay in the top 40 for a summer!

 

[mms]

i guess the 'hip-hop stole the show' issue was the straw that broke the camels back. and destiny's child on the front cover. and fischerspooner.

then the strokes + stripes saved the world :*)

amazing what all expenses paid trips to the us etc can do for a mags core tastes.

 

[nomadologist]

hip-hop sure did steal the show here, and not just in the 80s. 2006 was the first year in 20 + that hip-hop sales declined in the U.S.

 

[Guybrush]

What's "commercially viable" here is held to much higher sales requirements than anything in Europe is: I remember what struck me first when I was living in Germany is how long a song would stay in the top 10 on the radio. Some stayed for literally 6 months. In the U.S. you fight to have a song stay in the top 40 for a summer!

I don’t get the maths in your argument here. The different requirements for a single to get into the top 40, for example, ought not to affect for how long songs stay on top of the list ... I think—my math is a bit rusty.

One thing that British and American writers tend to omit is that, while the English language magazines (or web pages, e.g. Pitchfork) are not widely read in the non-English speaking world at large, they are studied ardently by writers working in such countries. Thus, the ideas expressed in those magazines, the bands promoted, etc., have a far wider reach than the immediate readership. I imagine the contrary is not true, i.e. British journalists are probably not being inspired by writing in Spanish or Croatian magazines.

Just out of curiosity, is newspaper and magazine reading as widespread in the U.S. as it is in Europe, or do Americans primarily tend to get their information from television?

 

[nomos]

Just out of curiosity, is newspaper and magazine reading as widespread in the U.S. as it is in Europe, or do Americans primarily tend to get their information from television?

I'd expect magazine readership is just about as widespread in Canada and the U.S. as it is in the UK and Europe. Not sure if the Internet has affected things evenly. It is true though that Britain produces better magazines than the U.S in a lot of areas (and not just for the Anglophilic); there's something just a bit too earnest (and cheap) about the domestic ones. Frinstance, American music gear/production mags will usually bore a nerd to tears, but when I used to read Future Music I'd learn more and often have a bit of a laugh too. And Europe definitely leads the way on the free stuff on the cover front. So, short answer, I'm sure we produce and read as many magazines but most of them not as good as those we import from you

 

[nomadologist]

I don’t get the maths in your argument here. The different requirements for a single to get into the top 40, for example, ought not to affect for how long songs stay on top of the list ... I think—my math is a bit rusty.

One thing that British and American writers tend to omit is that, while the English language magazines (or web pages, e.g. Pitchfork) are not widely read in the non-English speaking world at large, they are studied ardently by writers working in such countries. Thus, the ideas expressed in those magazines, the bands promoted, etc., have a far wider reach than the immediate readership. I imagine the contrary is not true, i.e. British journalists are probably not being inspired by writing in Spanish or Croatian magazines.

Just out of curiosity, is newspaper and magazine reading as widespread in the U.S. as it is in Europe, or do Americans primarily tend to get their information from television?

Top 40 and top 10 are based on sales and a bunch of figures that are run through some sort of equation. Of course, you can easily buy a place in the top 10, or your label can, rather. The songs stay at the top longer if there's less competition and if things continue to get airplay for longer. In the U.S., new stuff pushes the top40 songs (or threatens to) all the time.

Tons of people read newspapers just from what I see on the street and subway. I wouldn't be surprised if the internet was ahead of TV now on the list of popular new sources...